Critters Buggin to do rare local shows

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, December 15, 2005

The members of Critters Buggin are so busy with other projects these days that hometown Seattle shows are rare.

The improvisational jazz-rock quartet's performances Saturday and Sunday at the Tractor Tavern may be the last chance to see the group before saxophonist Skerik, vibraphonist Mike Dillon, drummer Matt Chamberlain and bassist Brad Houser head off in different directions in the coming year.

Skerik and Dillon will go on tour with the irreverent Dead Kenny G's after Critters Buggin plays on Jam Cruise 4, billed as "an unrivaled music and sensory experience at sea" in the Gulf of Mexico. The January cruise features Galatic, Digable Planets, Seattle's Reggie Watts and others.

'Black Panther' Star On The Film’s Success: ‘It Feels Like A Moment'Entertainment Weekly

What's up with Kanye's tweets?Fox5

Mackie: 'Avengers' is 'blessing of multiple riches'Associated Press

Skerik, a former member of Sadhappy and Tuatara, and Dillon also have played with Les Claypool's Flying Frog Brigade, as well as Garage a Trois. The pair will join Garage a Trois for a Jan. 6 show in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to kick off the cruise.

Chamberlain, an in-demand musician who has toured with David Bowie, Tori Amos, Elton John, Liz Phair, Macy Gray and others, has a new solo album recorded at his Seattle studio. (Chamberlain and Houser also were founding members of the New Bohemians.)

But this weekend, local fans can savor the heady grooves of "Stampede," the group's first album since "Amoeba" five years ago. The Tractor shows are release parties for "Stampede," now available on the Ropeadope label along with the rest of the Critters Buggin catalog (albums can be bought on the band's Web site).

"We play Seattle like twice a year, so this is it," Skerik said in Seattle this week.

Though band members live in different parts of the country (Skerik has been in New York for three years, though he still has a studio here), Seattle is where the group was founded in 1993. While in town, the band will record music for its next album. No release date has been set.

"We're just chipping away at it. It'll probably take a while," Skerik said.

"Stampede" is an arresting fusion of jazz, rock and world music. The album opens with the percolating "Hojo" and the dreamy, Asian-influenced "Panang," the latter written by Chamberlain and arranged by Eyvind Kang, who has worked with Beck, Bill Frisell, John Zorn and others.

"Eyvind has been prolific lately, with his writing and arranging of strings," Skerik said. "He's doing so many records that he's become a really important person. It's great to know him and be able to work with him."

"Stampede" marked a new approach for Critters Buggin. Instead of strictly improvising in the recording studio, as the band had done on previous recordings, individual members brought in finished compositions to record.

"Once we started recording them, everyone added parts here and there. We're pretty committed to improvisation, the whole culture of improvisation. We always have been."

Chamberlain, the album's chief producer, brought years of experience to the recording project.

"He's been in the studio non-stop the last 10 to 12 years, ever since working with the Wallflowers. So he really brought all that really amazing knowledge to the recording," Skerik said.

Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard is featured on the raucous "Toad Garden." Skerik described the brittle "Punk Rock Guilt" as "some rock stuff for the saxophone."

"They went for an extreme sound when they mixed it," Skerik said, referring to Chamberlain and local sound engineer Mell Dettmer. "They just had fun with it."

The title came from Joshua Homme of Queens of the Stone Age. Homme was quoted in an interview as saying, "Musicians just need to get over this punk rock guilt and write what's coming to them."

"That song, by nature of its tonality -- it's all brutal and distorted -- is a play on our punk rock guilt," Skerik said.

The album closes with the beautiful, uplifting "Open the Door of Peace," featuring Bachir and Mustapha of the Master Musicians of Jajouka.

"We had been fans of their music for years," Skerik said. "The music is like 2,000 or 3,000 years old. The rhythmic structure of their songs is perfect for a band like us."